


Will They Call You "The Winged Wolf"?

by hangrybluewhale



Series: Motherhood (ASOIAF) [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV Series)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 09:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17619734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangrybluewhale/pseuds/hangrybluewhale
Summary: Lyanna Stark watches from the Tower of Joy as Rhaegar rides off to the Trident, thinking of her unborn child.





	Will They Call You "The Winged Wolf"?

Your father insists that you’re going to be a girl, and says that he’ll call you Visenya, the third head of the Targaryen dragon. 

 

I don’t think I quite like that name. Visenya was fearsome, and fought with Valyrian Steel. Armed with Dark Sister, no man could withstand her! But when you’re born, I think I’d like to give you a Stark name.

 

Maybe I’ll name you after my mother, Lyarra. Father might like that. Or if you’re a boy, I could name you after Brandon, or Eddard, after my brothers. It might be a bit confusing to have two “Brandons” or two “Eddard's” in Winterfell, but I’m sure Benjen could think of a nickname for you. He’s good at that sort of thing. 

 

I’m sure I could convince Rhaegar to listen to me. His first two children are already named after Aegon and Rhaenys: the Conqueror, and his most beloved wife. Maybe his wife, his other wife —since he and I were wed before a heart tree—couldn’t think of better names to give her own children, or maybe she decided to just let Rhaegar pick them. She seems nice that way. I hope when Rhaegar sees her again, he’ll explain everything to her. I hope I can tell her that I never meant for her to be shamed when Rhaegar gave me that crown of winter roses. 

 

It was a secret between us. I was the Knight of the Laughing Tree, but he could not acknowledge my valor, not with his old suspicious father, so instead he crowned me with the winter roses. It didn’t mean that Elia Martell was an unworthy wife! 

 

Maybe when you’re born, Rhaegar will bring us to the Red Keep and present us to court. Elia Martell and her children will be there as well, most probably. We said our vows before a heart tree, Rhaegar and I, but he wed Elia Martell in a sept, to honour the new gods. In this way, neither of our marriages can be voided, and Rhaegar can have his Southron wife and his Northern bride, and his three heads of the dragon. 

 

But I think after a while, I’d like to bring you home to Winterfell. You’re my blood, even if you’ll be a Targaryen, not a Stark, and Starks belong at Winterfell. 

 

I’ve been writing to my father and my brothers. I hope they’ve received those letters. Arthur swears on Dawn that he sends the letters off with the fastest ravens; and an anointed knight as noble as The Sword of the Morning would never lie. I can only hope that they’ve read them and understood why I had to leave. 

 

I can trust that Ned will calm Robert down, once Rhaegar has let the realm know that he has taken me to wife. Robert... he may claim to love me, but he will not change his nature for me. If it is a Northern maid he wants, there are other girls with brown hair and grey eyes in the North. I could never be happy wedded to him.   

 

But with your father, no one could ever force me to wed anyone against their will. No one could force  _ me  _ to do anything against my will ever. Visenya Targaryen wielded Valyrian Steel. I think I would like a sword of my own. Ice is for Brandon, since he’s heir to Winterfell. Arthur let me hold Dawn once, white as starlight, but I think just having real steel in my hand would be nice. 

 

Rhaegar says his children will be heroes. He says that you will be a hero, and that there is a song for all of you. 

 

Will they call you “The Winged Wolf”, when they sing of you? Or perhaps you’ll be hailed as “The White Dragon”. 

 

I know I am a little young to be having children, but Rhaegar says it’s fine since I’ve already flowered. He says his mother had him even younger than I was, when she had just flowered, and he turned out alright. There’s to be a midwife for me. I wish there was a maester, but perhaps there are no maesters to find in Dorne. Everyone knows Dorne does things differently than everywhere else in Westeros. 

 

Your father says to wait for him. He says he is only riding off for a short while, to meet Robert Baratheon and explain that we are already wed and our vows cannot be set aside. He told me to always be careful, and avoid stressing the baby—Visenya, he keeps calling you, although I keep telling him that not even a maester can know if you’ll be a boy or a girl, before you’re born. 

 

He gave me another crown of roses before he left, blue as winter’s frost. They remind me of Winterfell. Of home.  

 

Maybe when you’re born, they’ll still have that shade of blue, and you can look at them as we count the days till Rhaegar brings us back to Winterfell. It almost feels like you’ll be due any day now. 

 

I can’t wait to meet you. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So just to clarify things, since this is from Lyanna's POV, and I headcanon that Rhaegar instructed the Kingsguard not to tell her anything about Robert's Rebellion or how his father executed Brandon and Rickard, I wrote her as still idealistic and hopeful about her future, just waiting for the day she'll be let out of the tower. 
> 
> I think it explains why, when Ned found her, as seen in AGOT, the black, crumbling petals of winter roses were still by her side. I think that, even up to the very end, Lyanna still believed that everything would turn out alright until Ned arrived and she realised the Kingsguard would rather kill Ned than let him through. 
> 
> Lyanna wasn't stupid, but she was (at most) fifteen years old and probably mostly sheltered from feudal politics and didn't have the understanding of why a war would be going on.


End file.
